


All This Blood On My Hands

by Cocopops1995



Series: Hurt Me With Your Words [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A whole lot of angst, Blood, Gen, also angst, lots of blood, very vague mention of suicide, voltronwhumpweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 20:12:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11858844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Shiro took a hit a laser blast for Ryou, and now Ryou has to keep his brother from bleeding out in front of him





	All This Blood On My Hands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitsune13tamlin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsune13tamlin/gifts).



> Once again, this fic is set in headspacedad's (kitsume13tamlin) Ryou universe. Find it here: http://headspacedad.tumblr.com/fanfiction

Ryou was ready to punch someone. Not just one someone, there was a whole group of someones that he wanted to punch. Repeatedly. Until every last one of them had lost consciousness. And that’s exactly what he would have been doing, had his hands not been too busy trying to stop his brother from bleeding out of the gaping wound in his abdomen.

“Ryou,” Taka murmured, “You look like your head’s about to explode.” 

Ryou glared at his brother’s already too pale face, “You, shut up. We wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for you.”

Taka smiled weakly, “Yes we would, only you’d be where I am and I’d be where you are. This is by far the better alternative.”

Ryou scrunched his eyes shut and cursed out loud, “Damnit Takashi, if you don’t stop talking right now, I swear to God I will punch you in the gut once you’re healed up.”

A hand landed on his shoulder and gave a weak squeeze, “Sorry.” Taka mumbled. 

Ryou sighed and opened his eyes up again. He wanted to be mad at his brother for taking an alien laser blast for him, he really did. But Ryou knew that had their roles been reversed he would have done exactly the same thing, so he really couldn’t hold it against Taka for jumping in front of that blast. No matter how much he wanted to.

“It’s okay,” Ryou said as Taka’s hand slipped off his shoulder, “You just focus on staying alive, okay? I didn’t come all the way out here to lose you again. Understand?”

Taka nodded weakly and his eyes slipped closed.

“Hey, keep your eyes open, bro. You can’t go to sleep yet.”

Ryou glanced anxiously up at the fight that was going on a few meters away from them. Taka’s team had wasted no time in jumping in to fight off the apparent extremist group that had interrupted the diplomatic meeting they’d been having with this particular planet’s government once Taka had been hit. He was glad to see that they were winning the fight, Keith in particular was going after each extremist with such fury it almost seemed as if he was channeling Ryou’s own fury. Which was good. They needed to hurry up, time was not a luxury any of them had right now, especially with Taka’s life on the line.

Ryou turned back to his brother and was alarmed to see that Taka had grown paler since the last time Ryou had looked at him. Ryou pressed the bundled up table cloth, once white but now soaked crimson red with Taka’s blood, harder against the wound. 

Taka groaned in pain at the added pressure. Ryou felt his heart constrict at the sound. He hated that he was the reason for that sound, but he had no choice. He needed to keep Taka from dying. He knew for a fact he wouldn’t survive having to deal with Taka’s death. Not again. And not when there was no way he would be able to deny it this time. 

“Ryou…”

Taka’s voice was even weaker than before and the sound of it scared Ryou more than anything in his life ever had before. 

“Shh, don’t speak. You need to save your energy, okay? Rather use it to stay alive.” Ryou glanced up again to try and hide the tears that he was desperately trying to blink away now, “The others are almost done kicking ass. We’ll have you back on the Castle and into a pod in no time. Don’t you worry about anything.”

“Ryou.” Taka tried again, “If I - if I don’t -”

“No.” Ryou cut him off harshly, “Stop. You are going to make it out of here. Because if you don’t I will follow you to whatever afterlife there is and kick your ass there, understood?”

He watched Taka’s eyes widen at the dead serious implication behind Ryou’s words. He opened his mouth to say something else and Ryou was just about to cut him off again when they were interrupted by Keith, Hunk, and Coran joining them with a floating stretcher.

“Help me get him onto the stretcher.” Coran ordered Keith and Hunk. Ryou was surprised, he’d never heard Coran give out commands before, let alone in such a stern voice.

Keith and Hunk immediately moved to either side of Taka, getting ready to pick him up.

“Ryou, you’re going to need to let go of him for a moment. But as soon as he’s on the stretcher, I want you to straddle him and get right back to keeping as much pressure as possible onto that wound.”

Ryou nodded.

“Very good. Now when I count to three, Ryou let go and Keith and Hunk lift him onto the stretcher.”

Taka cried out when they picked him up and again when Ryou reapplied the pressure to his wound. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Ryou muttered, “Just a little longer, Taka. Just hold on a little longer.” 

The trip back to the Castle was quick but Taka still slipped into unconsciousness despite all their begging of him not to. 

Once in the infirmary, Coran went about readying a pod as quickly as he could. Taka’s pulse was still there, but weak and erratic. They needed to get him into a pod now. 

Once Coran was ready, he told Ryou to let go again. As soon as Ryou had moved away, he sprayed something out of a white bottle onto the wound.

“To seal it so that he doesn’t bleed out further before the pod can do anything to help him.” Coran explained, “We don’t have time to get him into the cryo-suit. He needs to go in as is.”

Ryou nodded numbly and went about helping Coran move Taka into the pod. 

Once i the pod had sealed and Taka had been frozen, Taka watched anxiously as Coran went over the stats that the pod was giving him. 

Coran turned to face Ryou, “It’s a close thing, but the chances are good that he’ll be back to his usual self in about a quintent or so.”

Ryou nodded again. 

Coran squeezed his shoulder and then said something about going back out to help any other wounded by the attack, but Ryou didn’t really hear him. He was focused on his brother’s face, now slack with sleep rather than tight with pain. 

Suddenly, Ryou was pulled into a tight hug. “He’ll be okay.” Hunk said, “He’s always okay.”

Ryou nodded, never taking his eyes off his brother’s face. A moment later he felt Hunk shift, and the next thing he knew he was sharing the hug with Keith as well. 

When Ryou finally tore his eyes away from Taka’s face, it was to bury his face into Hunk’s shoulder. He shuddered and felt the first sob work it’s way out of his body. He’d come so close to losing Taka today. He didn’t know that he’d ever been so scared in his life before. He did know that he never wanted to feel so scared ever again. 

The quintent that Taka spent in the healing pod was probably the longest day in Ryou’s life. Rivaled only by the days right after they’d lost contact with The Little Magpie what felt like an age ago. There were painful knots in Ryou’s chest and stomach the entire time. He refused to leave the infirmary longer than absolutely necessary for toilet breaks and to clean up. He even refused to eat, he couldn’t. Not with the knot in his stomach filling him up completely. 

The relief he felt once Taka stepped out of the pod, whole and very much alive, was rivaled only by that which he felt when Taka had rescued him from that gladiator arena what also felt like an age ago. Every knot inside him finally loosened, and for the first time since Taka had been hit, Ryou felt like he could actually breathe again. 

Taka fell right into Ryou’s embrace the moment he stepped out of the pop, and they spent a long moment just holding one another. When they finally let go, the look on Taka’s face said that he remembered Ryou’s words and that they were going to talk about it. Taka could be as pissed as he wanted to be about it, Ryou didn’t care. All that mattered was that Taka was alive and that he stayed that way. 

They were twins, connected in inexplicable ways. If Taka carried on, then so would Ryou. That’s just how it worked.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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